Hyderabad’s Sreeja clinches maiden international title

Hyderabad girl and two-time national champion paddler Akula Sreeja clinched the women's singles title at the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi, her maiden international trophy, to start the new season on a high.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad girl and two-time national champion paddler Akula Sreeja clinched the women’s singles title at the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi, her maiden international trophy, to start the new season on a high.

The talented girl from Hyderabad defeated World No. 46 Lily Zhang of the USA 3-0 (11-6, 18-16, 11-5) in the final on Thursday night. The final was a one-sided affair. After winning the extended second game on the sixth game point against Zhang, Sreeja finished things up quite easily to take the top spot on the podium.

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“I am immensely pleased, and my efforts got me where I wanted to be. It’s my maiden international title, and I have earned it after two close calls in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament. Both (Amy and Lily) were higher-ranked players and I played well against them,” she said after the final.

En route to the final, the 25-year-old had shocked top-seed Amy Wang of USA 3-2 (11-9, 9-11, 11-1, 6-11, 11-9) in an evenly-contested quarterfinal. Ranked No. 85 in the world, Sreeja led 2-1 before allowing Amy to crawl back and level the score. Nevertheless, the Indian bagged the final points in the decider.

In the semifinals, the Indian was up against Jiangshan Gao of the USA, leading 2-1 before the latter produced a fine recovery and levelled the score in the fourth extended game at 12-10. However, Sreeja finished the tight fifth game to win 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9 and seal her place in the final.